Ventricular Rhythms: Rate & Recognition

By behereaxum

Summary

Ventricular rhythms fire from below the AV node. That means wide QRS complexes, and no visible P waves.

Chapters

  1. Ventricular rhythms fire from below the (0s)
  2. Here's the shared signature: a broad, (8s)
  3. Idioventricular rhythm is the slowest, an (18s)
  4. Speed it up to forty through (27s)
  5. Push past one hundred beats, and (35s)
  6. Same wide QRS, three rate zones: (48s)
  7. So check the QRS width first, (54s)

Transcript

Ventricular rhythms fire from below the AV node. That means wide QRS complexes, and no visible P waves. Here's the shared signature: a broad, bizarre QRS over one hundred twenty milliseconds, with no P waves in front. Every ventricular rhythm shows this. Idioventricular rhythm is the slowest, an escape rhythm at just twenty to forty beats per minute, when the ventricles take over as the backup pacemaker. Speed it up to forty through one hundred, and you get accelerated idioventricular rhythm, often seen after reperfusion. Push past one hundred beats, and it becomes ventricular tachycardia: fast, wide, and potentially unstable. Three or more beats in a row with no P waves is a run of V-tach. Same wide QRS, three rate zones: under forty, forty to one hundred, and over one hundred. So check the QRS width first, then count the rate. That's how you name any ventricular rhythm.